Welgama warns country heading towards military dictatorship

by Zacki Jabbar

Kumara Welgama who is contesting this week’s Parliamentary Polls on the SJB ticket, warns that it could be the last since the Rajapaksas have already set in motion the process of establishing a military dictatorship.

Addressing several meetings in the Kalutara electorate recently, Welgama recalled that he had warned prior to the last Presidential Election that Gotabaya’s grand plan was to establish military rule after hoodwinking the people at the polls. But there were those who doubted him then.

Now you can see it happening. The President has already appointed Special Task Forces packed with former military personnel who are not answerable to the Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament, he said lamenting that competent public officials specialized in various fields had been sidelined.

Advicing Ministers Dinesh Gunawardena and Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Welgama said that the Podujana Peramuna was a family party and asked them not to have much hope of advancing in the party hierarchy because only the Rajapaksas could rise to the top in that party.

The debt burden was rising and the economy going down the Gadarene slope. But, the government in its height of incompetence has printed well over Rs.200 billion foolishly thinking that it was the solution to the worsening crisis, he noted.

He said that the masses had been taken for a jolly good ride by Gotabaya, who made many bogus promises including 100,000 jobs for those not having passed the GCE Ordinary Level Examination, a Rs. 20,000 monthly stipend for graduates whose functions were never clearly outlined, dhal at Rs.65 and a tin of canned fish at Rs.100. But none of these promises were fulfilled, even though eight months has lapsed.

Don’t vote for the Rajapaksas and lose your hard fought democratic freedoms by making the same mistake again, he appealed.